Aoi Hozuki
Aoi Hozuki is a genin in the service of the Village Hidden in the Mist. He is an up and coming genin, having been slated to take part of the chunin exams this year, which is held in his home land, the Land of Water. He is part of team Kiritsugu, with his two allies. He is a member of the prestigious Hōzuki Clan. Appearance Aoi is a slender boy, not being particularly muscular as he rarely uses taijutsu in combat, instead focusing on the water release that his clan is famous for. Due to his Hydrification technique, his body is essentially unmarked by injury, as physical attacks are incapable of harming him. He has a slightly round face, with a pointed chin, a slender nose and strange reddish eyes, though it has been confirmed he has no propensity for any sort of dojutsu. His hair is white, a trait that is extremely common among the Hozuki. Aoi dresses simply, in the standard Kirigakure flack jacket over a blue set of mesh armor and a blue long sleeve vested shirt, he wears dark green pants, as the color combination helps him blend into the mist that the village hidden in the mist is known for. His off-duty clothes consist of clothing that seems more in place for a school than just walking around the city, consisting of tan pants and a white undershirt under a white button up dress shirt. He tends to wear closed toe shoes in either outfit. Personality Aoi isn't a forceful personality, usually letting his more impulsive teammates take the lead on things, almost as if he was just lazy. However he will more than put in the effort if he sees a clear purpose for it. He doesn't speak a lot, instead trying to instill as much meaning as he can into as few words as possible, something that frequently seems to confuse bystanders. While he is more than competent in battle, he prefers to let his allies take all the glory, almost as if he was trying to be the unassuming type. He is generally kind, however he generally won't hesitate to try and stop actions he disagrees with, unless he feels that stopping such an action would cause more trouble than he feels is worth to deal with the situation for him, such as when he didn't try and stop his teammate's fight with a random outsider shortly before the chunin exam until he realized that an explosion in the middle of kiri's forests would cause the ANBU to come running, something that could have been disastrous for the team as it would have disqualified them and likely gotten them arrested. On a deeper side, Aoi is a man full of resentment, both towards the village and his own clan. He deeply distrusts the Hozuki clan after he saw how they treated his family, and has actively plotted to get some measure of vengeance on them some day. His unassuming demeanor is simply a way to make them assume he is more of the same from his family, even if he is a bit more successful. His feigned incompetence towards them is nothing more than a ruse. To this end he has been looking for a platform in which to publicly declare his feelings towards his clan, to which the chunin exams are the perfect solution. Background Aoi was born to a low ranking family in the Hozuki Clan. His mother was just a normal kirigakure shinobi, and his father was a member of the cadet branch of the clan. As a result they tended to be looked down upon by one of the strongest clans in the village. Things got worse when his father failed several missions in a row, something that eventually tore the struggling apart, an event that has completely poisoned Aoi against his own clan, even as he has exceeded the rather low expectations that were applied to him. He entered the academy at age 5, like most children who were to become ninja, and while he wasn't at the top of his class, he was close. He was placed in the advanced class eventually, where he ended up being average until his graduation at the age of 11. He was eventually assigned to team five under a jonin sensei and with partner Raiden Narukami and insert name here, where he has been ever since. The quad of ninja have been rather successful, having a near 100% success rate on missions, something that did not go unnoticed, as they were eventually chosen to join in on the chunin exams. The main reason that their mission success rate was not 100%, is Aoi actively sabotaged the objective of one of their missions, still unknown to his team mates. It was the second mission they have had that took them outside the land of water, to a distant land called the Land of Vegetables. There they were instructed to find the home base of the three siblings who had taken over the throne sometime in the past, in order to find some information on the unique techniques that they had used. While they did find the lair and two of the three techniques in scrolls that the siblings must have discovered the base process for, the primary technique of the youngest sibling was never found, as Aoi had used his water release to lift all the text of the technique and had stored it into a scroll of his own, to which he later used to help develop the technique on his own, crafting his currently greatest technique. However in their last mission before the exams, the third genin of their team was severely injured in an ambush, while Aoi and the remaining members of the team did break the ambush and came out with minimal injuries, the female member of their trio was injured enough that she would be unable to participate in the exams. This left their team down by a person, though since the exam was based on teams of three, it was something that would likely be rectified by a leftover from another team or village, depending on who made it in. Skills Overall, Aoi is a Water Release specialist, and in particular a specialist in using his water release in assassination like tactics, being no more than passable in other techniques normally known by ninja. Hiden Aoi has spent years perfecting his usage of the Hydrification Technique, and has easily mastered it to a fairly high level, though his more limited chakra levels due to his age prevents him from using it on any scale larger than his normal body without quickly depleting his reserves. It renders him completely immune to physical attacks, such as taijutsu, kenjutsu, and bukijutsu. It also makes him significantly resistant to wind release and other water release moves, as the lack of additional effects renders them unable to do anything beyond disrupt his current form. On the other hand, lightning can deal heavy damage to him, as water is a good conductor of it, earth can be effective as well, but dirtying the water that comprises him, it can be used to prevent him from turning back, as internal mud is not pleasant by any means. Fire also ironically can work, though it is the most difficult measure for dealing with his water release, as it can be used to evaporate parts of him, which would force him to create more water to sustain himself, which takes a lot of chakra, leading to quick exhaustion. He has also shown significant progress with another hiden of the clan that utilizes his watery form, a move popularized by the second Mizukage, the Water Gun Technique. This move utilizes some of his internal water to create a bullet of water, which is fired off at high speed, creating a technique with high penetration power. Ninjutsu Aoi is a specialist in ninjutsu in general, and the Water Release in particular. His clan has left him with a strong affinity for this release, and it is something he has embraced in his pursuit of the life of a shinobi. His skill in water release is what defines him as a fighter, and it is his biggest ability that he will use to elevate himself and his team to victory. His skills in water release trend towards small scale, assassination oriented moves. He refrains from the large and flashy moves for the most part, as his level of power isn't fit for annihilating villages and continents with waves of water, instead he focuses on smaller displays, being anti-person and anti-team rather than anti-army in his execution of techniques. This is most exemplified with the extreme efficiency he shows in the usage of the Hiding in Mist Technique, a premier technique used by kirigakure, and sets up the style for the fact his time fights blind a significant amount of the time. This lack of reliance on sight gives them a large advantage to lesser groups, as that is the sense most relied upon by most ninja. That combined with his ability to utilize his mist also as a sensing component, and his combined sensing with his team mate Raiden, makes it a drastically one sided affair against all but the most proficient of shinobi, as they can't see the attacks coming, and can't find their opposition in the mist. His strongest technique was stolen from the land of vegetables, causing one of the only failures on his team's entire record, though his team mates do not know about this one bit of treachery, as he lifted the technique off a scroll and deposited it upon one of his own. This technique was the Water Release: Water–Heavens Convergence. It allows him to freely control the movement of water, albeit it comes at a price for him, as it forces him to remove his Hydrification technique in order to use it, as he has serious trouble maintaining his watery form as the technique will start to pull his body apart. Though with the ability to freely control water in his surroundings still avails him to serious offensive and defensive capabilities either way. Taijutsu Aoi's Taijutsu capabilities are mediocre in nature, being passable for a genin at best. It is by far not his strong suit, and the one range where opponents of a similar level can actively overpower him. However, while his taijutsu offense is weak, his defense is incapable of being broken by taijutsu alone, as his hydrification technique renders him completely immune to physical attacks. What taijutsu he does has is agile and quick, mostly there to get him enough distance to use his ninjutsu. Bukijutsu Aoi is proficient with bukijutsu, being able to set up traps and utilize every weapon in his arsenal, from his spears to kunai and shuriken. He mostly uses this to add variety to his combat repertoire, because if he only used water release an opponent might find a way to counter him. Equipment Crab Claw Spear A weapon that was acquired by Aoi on a trip to the edges of the land of water during the course of the many missions that he and his team performed during the village hidden in the mist. His team had been ordered to help with an infestation of rock spine crabs in a small fishing village on the extreme eastern edge of the land of water, these crabs had severely impacted the fisheries that dotted the landscape, and had grown to such rampancy and size that the villagers couldn't even try to exterminate them. So they were one of three teams dispatched by the local lord to clear out the infestation. In response, his part of the reward, beyond just money, were six spears crafted out of the claws of the crabs, which still open or close with proper pressure, producing a vice like grip. Trivia Quotes